Steve's Family Trip to AZ

This post is from Ashley and Steve.

We had an enjoyable time at Lori and Brian's house. Ashley loved playing with Abby, Ashley gave lots of doggybones to Abby. It seemed every time Lori turned around Ashley was asking for a bone to give to the dog.

Ahsley loved going to the schneph farms and ridding on the train and the hayride. She particularly liked the merry-go-round. When we went on it we were the only ones there and the lady who was doing it let us go on an extra long ride. We were on it so long I believe that we all became a little dizzy.

On our way to Arizona we stoped in Page at Glen Canyon Dam. We arrived right before a tour so we spent 45 minutes and went on a tour of the dam. It was very exciting learning more about the dam and Lake Powell.

efhtuk8h774562123.r ashley steve madison kelly--Ashley typed this

Schnepf Farm

Steven, Kelly, Ashley, Madison and Lori had fun at Schnepf Farm. The farm is a few minutes from Lori's house. We had a fun time riding a train around the farm, going on a hay ride, feeding Santa's raindeer, petting the farm animals, going on a carousal built in 1912, roasting marshmellows, playing in the playground and seeing the Christmas lights.

All-a-board!!! Kelly and Ashley had fun playing on the train.
It was a little cold for Arizona. Madison is trying to keep warm under her hat and blankets

Here is Ashley on the Carousal. She would have stayed on it all day.

Christmas Morning

This was Brennan first thing on Christmas morning. He's sportin' his new jammies he opened the night before from Aunt Kristen.

We hope everyone had a nice Christmas. We sure did. Thank you Dad, Mom, Brent, Lori, and Brian for coming. We enjoyed having you all here. It made for a very nice Christmas. We did all the normal traditions. We had soup and sour dough bread for dinner, mom made rice pudding (Brent had the almond, Sorry Dad maybe next year), Brent made sugar cookies (even though we didn't end up rolling them out till Thursday night at Lori's), and Lori and Brent made Christmas rings, which were delicous. Jason's family tradition is to wake up early on Christmas morning, which you all know is not our family's. He was awake by 5:00 ready to go. I asked him to stay in bed till at least 7:00, but he couldn't wait that long, so he got up at 6:30 and started making us all breakfast of eggs, hashbrowns, sausage. Everyone was up by about 7:00. We had a very nice breakfast first, since it was already, then we dived into presents. Everyone got such nice things. The biggest hits were Jason's and Mom's calenders and Mom's cute little puppy from Brian! Brennan was happy to finally get his dinosaur toys which he'd been asking for all month and to get the DVD "Happy Feet", to which he gave the best reaction to. After all the presents were opened, of course we ate some more. The rest of the day we just hung out, did a new puzzle, played Jason and I's new board game, watched DVD's and of course, ate some more. We hope all of you who weren't with us had just as nice of a Christmas. We wish we could have all been together! Next year hopefully we will be!

This is a video of Brennan opening Aunt Sheryl Lynn's present! Thanks Sheryl Lynn!

Here is the present from Grandma Twede. He has loved playing in it. We just need a bigger house now with a big play room to fit all of his new toys!

our visitor

This has been a crazy weekend. Brian thought he was cute when he brought home a little puppy he found by the mailbox. Currently the puppy is homeless and we can't find his parents. Brian had the idea of putting him in a box and giving him to Mom for Christmas. What do you guys think?

brent's art work

Thanks for the Music

Hey Lori, thanks for adding the music. That is such a fun little feature! This is going to be the coolest blog ever!

Cindy

We got some snow today, so we went out to play in it. Here is the lovely snowman that we made. This is as good as it gets. Mostly, Brennan just liked running around while I hit him with snowballs saying, "More mommy, more." Brennan could have stayed out there all day if it weren't for his wimpy mom who doesn't like being cold.



Here is a video of Brennan when we first came outside. He's not quite sure what to think of the whole snow thing, but he warmed up to the idea. We didn't get that much snow, but just enough for us to have some fun. (Sorry you have to listen to me talk. I'll have to remember next time when I'm recording not to talk so loud, since the microphone is just inches away!)

Elf Yourself

This is so funny. YOU HAVE TO WATCH BRIAN AND I DANCING
http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1264099662

Good ol' tree

I don't think the tree would have come down so easily without all the supervisors. Thanks Dad and Rob Staker (I don't want to leave out Steve Lund and Gary Spillman) for being such great supervisors.

Here is Brian in the walnut tree and he looks a little nervous. He felt pressure from Steven to "BE A MAN"

bye bye walnut tree

Steven and Brent are so brave. Steven is in the tree and Brent is on the house.

Christmas time

Brent and myself just put up the Christmas tree. I am wondering why since we will not be home for Christmas. Waiting for mother to come home (she work longer with her part time job than my full time job) to help put more decoration on the tree on the tree.

Gary Spillman has put all of his lights out, I have put very little out.

Every one have a good night.

When I get my camera out i will take a few picture of the neighborhood and sent it on the blog.

love dad

Brennan the Dracula

Here's one of the latest pictures we have of Brennan. It was on Halloween when he was dracula. We haven't had the camera out since then. Christmas will be fun this year with Brennan being a bit older. He's understanding alot more and gets excited about things. He even sat on Santa's lap without crying, he was just super shy and stared right into his beard not saying a word. He did give Santa a smile when he gave him a candy cane though. I also put an advent calender up on the wall and it has a hershey kiss for each day before Christmas, so every morning when he wakes up he wants to move the star and get his piece of candy. He likes to try to sneak them out when I'm not looking. Right before hoping in the shower the other day, I needed something out of the other bathroom so I left the shower running while I went out to grab it, that's when I saw Brennan on his tippy toes trying to reach the candy out of the little pockets. He knew he was caught red-handed, so he started pushing me out of the room backwards saying over and over again: "Mom go take your shower." He's learning way to quick on how to go behind his parents back. I guess when it comes to chocolate he'll do just about anything just like his mother!

Let's get it started!

I've started this blog so we can all keep in touch a bit better. It's a fun way to post pictures, videos, good news, updates, or just whatever you feel like. So please everyone participate, experiment and have fun. Enjoy!